I will pick it up sometime this year and read it. Did you read the novella set between these two trilogies? - The Heart of What Was Lost

Regarding viewpoints, I wonder if there some maximum that the average reader prefers. For instance, since you mentioned WOT, how much better would the series have been had it only focused on viewpoints from Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Nynaeve, Moiraine, Min, and Elayne and then maybe some of the Forsaken? It would have kept the story more focused. When I was doing my great reread I counted viewpoints and in some of the books it was over 40. Martin suffers greatly from this as well. There needs to be a more concentrated amount.

I like how Sanderson, in his Stormlight Archive, essentially keeps the viewpoints to about 4 characters per book and then also adds some interregnums that show small vignettes from the views of other people that expand on the story/world.